Customer Reviews

Playing the Fool (Aniv)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Absolutely outstanding re-master. When you close your eyes you get the feeling that you are actually live at a Gentle Giant concert and I can attest to this since I have been to a few Gentle Giant concerts back in my hayday.

This is the definite live album. This does what a live album should do -- capture the essence of the band, convey the excitement of the event, and sound like a concert. This one does it all with perfection. If anyone wonders just how much musicians can accomplish live on stage, "Playing The Fool" answers all questions. In concert, each of these guys played multiple instruments and sang. Sometimes playing 5 percussion instruments, or 5 stringed instruments, or singing a 5-part acappella, they played individually and as an ensemble in a wild frenzy of syncopated, complicated and technically brilliant music that defined progressive rock. And their concerts were FUN. This album captures it all. The finest musicians ever recorded--live!

This album was my first exposure to Gentle Giant. When I got the album and put it in my cd player for the first spin, I was initially struck with how unusual and unique GG are. I have never heard anything quite like this! Anyways, I decided to give it a good go, as I realized this would be an acquired taste. I was right, it is, but boy is it good when you finally do get it. I think the live album Playing the Fool, is a real good starting point for GG initiates, as it covers alot of the material from their better studio albums, my favorite being the Excerpts from Octopus. The only complaint I would possibly mention is that the album is too short, I really would've liked to have heard more. That said, the album does the trick for me. I'm hooked and looking forward to hearing more from this very progressive band. Try Playing the Fool. If you like progressive music, you'll love it. 5 stars.

Along with The Lamb, this is the best prog rock album ever made. Gentle Giant is, man for man, the best collection of musicians in prog rock and on this album they put on a clinic. The interplay among them is unparaled and I was particularly blown away by Gary Green who is the most underrated guitar player on the planet.

I'm a Progressive Rock kind of guy. I grew up on Rush and Yes, not to mention lots of other stuff but this gets the point across. Would someone please explain to me how these guys went completely under my radar for so many years?

I'd have to put this band somewhere in the Kansas with Jazz tendencies category. They're a really enjoyable band. As I remember I bought this album because it has a good perspective of the group in a live performance. Bands like this should be listened to live. You get the full visual and audio thing. This album also contains some of their best songs like a compilation so it's a great place to start.

Buy it, Love it.

I've known since the early 70's that I liked this band, and I've always appreciated the aspect of newer bands that borrowed selectively from the Gentle Giant sound. Yet I shunned this cd for many years with unfounded biases of overindulgence and potential eccentricities.
My bad.

Please don't make the same mistake I made - add this great live "best of" cd to your collection while you can. This is truly complex and progressive rock performed flawlessly and with pretty good sound reproduction. There's an Octopus suite that's really...well, sweet; and they add nice different touches to ALL of the tracks. That's one of the nice things about this: not only can they (and DO they) perform this sophisticated material live with few imperfections, but they also throw in some nice changes so that you don't just get the studio tracks re-hashed live. There is a nice live feel to the entire album, and you get a good sense of the fun that these guys could have on stage as well.
Worthy.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 9.2/10; Performance = 9.7/10; Production = 8.2/10; CD length = 10/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 9.3 ("5 stars")

Fabulous album - ditto everyone...but...What I'd like to know is...How was this album enhanced? - sounds the same to me! And where are these extra tracks??? I don't see any. What's up with THAT??

Given the sheer complexity of their music, I was curious to see if the band could pull it off live and picked this 1977 release up, which brings together concerts recorded during the 1976 tour. I am happy to report that they can reproduce their trademark sound live, and the high energy levels of the performances on Playing the Fool made the listening experience very enjoyable.

The lineup on this live album included Derek Shulman (vocals, descant recorder, alto saxophone, bass guitar, percussion); Gary Green (acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars, alto & descant recorders, background vocals, percussion); Ray Shulman (acoustic guitar, bass guitar, violin, descant recorder, trumpet, background vocals, percussion); Kerry Minnear (cello, tenor recorder, Hammond organ, mellotron, synthesizers, vibraphone, background vocals, percussion); and John Weathers (vibraphone, drums, background vocals, percussion). The fantastic thing is that the guys can play all of these instruments with conviction and passion - they really go all out.

The performances by all of the members are extraordinary and the live setting lends their pieces added punch and depth - they mix a good bit of improvisation into the tracks and even re-vamp certain sections - which further demonstrates their skills at negotiating the rocky terrain of such difficult music. I especially like the song selection too, which includes tracks from the eponymous 1970 debut through In'terview (1976) - in short, the creative peak for the band. This remastered version by DRT Entertainment is OK and features pretty good sound quality.

All in all, this is a great live album by the band and amply demonstrates their seemingly boundless skills as musicians. Highly recommended along with the 1970 debut; Acquiring the Taste (1971); Three Friends (1972); Octopus (1973); In a Glass House (1973); The Power and the Glory (1974); Free Hand (1975); and In'terview (1976).

Gentle Giant's 1977 release, "Playing The Fool," is a double-live set (though, at 78 minutes, it thankfully squeezes onto a single CD!). It's a great live document of the group, showing off the band's tight musicianship and knack for experimentation (such as those giddy-sounding flutes on "Excerpts From Octopus" and the amazing performance on vibes during "Funny Ways," not to mention John Weathers' outstanding drum solo on "So Sincere"). Gentle Giant's odd time signatures, vocals & arrangements may be an acquired taste, but these guys were a great, very unique group, and "Playing The Fool" is a very solid live set. If you're a newer Gentle Giant fan who never got to see them live (like myself), then this album is the closest thing you'll get to experiencing the group in concert, while for longtime fans who *were* fortunate enough to attend the gigs all those years ago, "Playing The Fool" serves as a great slice of nostalgia.

A super set from an much under appreciated band. These comteperaries of Yes and Genesis never reached the same level of stardom, but it was not for lack of talent. This disc was recorded around the same time I was lucky enough to catch them live. It sounds great and brought back a flood of memories of that show. They are greatly missed in my house.